Inside Slender Man's Hell
by EvilFuzzle100
Summary: Fan fiction I wrote to describe how I see Slender Man acting. A group of college kids decide to test the legend of Slender Man, but to their horror they find out how true these supposed legends are... R & R please, it helps a bunch. Constructive criticism though. Thank you, enjoy :D
1. Chapter 1

"Please! Someone help us!" Jenny screamed into the frigid night air. I gasped for breath as I ran alongside her, thinking the exact same thing. "Oh shit, shit, run! It's behind us!" Peter yelled and began shoving us forward. A squeal of terror escaped my throat and the adrenaline made me sprint even faster through the dense woods. We, my friends and I, had been running for hours, running from a thing, a thing that we had no clue what in the hell it was at first. It was pursuing us, each of us disappearing one by one as time went on. The group used to be 9, now it was 5. Our group came here in a stupid impulse to find out if the legends were true or not; if a monster really lived here in these woods that made people vanish into thin air. And unfortunately, we found out just how true it was.

Suddenly a terrified cry broke me out of my daze and I spun around to the direction it came from. And to my horror I saw my friend Freddy being pulled backwards by an invisible force. He had his hands tightly clamped around a smaller tree and was hanging on for dear life. "Someone help me! Fuck, I don't want to die!" Freddy cried out as his legs begin to give out from underneath him. "Shit. No, Freddy!" I shouted and lunged at him, holding onto his arms for dear life and pulling. "Someone help me." I said quickly to the others when I could feel my feet beginning to slide along the bracken. I felt arms wrap around my waist and pull me backwards and then saw Jansen grab hold of Freddy's other arm. As much as the three of us pulled, I could still feel him slipping from our grasp. Tears streamed down my face. I didn't want to see another friend be killed by the demonic thing. "Pull harder!" I cried out, yanking at his arms. But then then to our horror, our attempt to save him was to no avail. With a great heave, Freddy was suddenly ripped from our hands, and he immediately disappeared into the night, his screams of terror piercing the air. "No!" I howled and charged for him but Jansen threw his arms around me and pulled me away. "Stop, Gwen. He's gone! He's dead, that thing killed him. We need to run before it kills the rest of us!" He told me frantically, pulling me along. I nodded in shock and bolted, trying to purge the sounds of his death out of my mind.

Bile threatened to come up, burning my esophagus, but I kept choking it back down with a shudder. I was so scared it wasn't even funny; I could feel death at my heels, laughing a throaty chuckle and itching to wrap its hands around my throat, desperate to squeeze every last ounce of life out of me. There had to be some way out of this inner circle of hell, there just had to be. If not, then I pray to God that my death will swift and painless. Jenny, who was running ahead of me, started to slow down and sob, absolutely gasping for air. "Oh God, we're gonna die. We're running in circles, that demons going to find and it's going to eat us, just like everyone else…" She blubbered, completely coming to a stop. We all halted and then came running back to her. "Jenny! Get a hold of yourself, Jenny! We ain't gonna die, and that thing ain't gonna eat us_" Peter said to her, while holding her shoulders and shaking her slightly. "No! Shut up! You know we are, and you know that thing eats people…you could hear it crunching on the bones of our friends, you could hear them being ripped open alive and eaten, you could hear their blood splashing on the ground…their screams, oh their screams…God help us." Jenny shrieked, cutting him off and jerking out of his arms, quaking violently. Suddenly we all reeled back in pain when we all were assaulted with the blinding static. The sound made us all moan in pain and grab at our heads. It left my ears ringing and my stomach threatened to heave out all its contents on the forest floor. "Your God can't help you now." A garbled, deep voice whispered to the group. Jenny cried out and fled from the group, stumbling in a random direction. The others and I quickly wrenched ourselves to our feet and pursued her, anything to get away from that thing. That thing that legends stated was a myth, that tall, faceless slender being…the Slender Man. Slender Man was real, and we were all trapped in his layer of hell.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ragged, gasping breaths broke bone chilling silence as my group ran into the new area of the woods. We don't know how long we had been running, or where we were even running to, just as long as we got away from Slender Man. When we broke through the trees I spotted a large building some ways ahead of us. It looked abandoned and empty, not something you exactly wanted to hide in…but considering our circumstances, I would hide anywhere inside something then rather be stuck in these unending, claustrophobic woods. I pointed to it and everyone nodded, too winded to speak up or protest. Once we reached this said building we were somewhat relieved to find it unlocked, and then herded ourselves inside, shoving the metal door shut behind us. "Quick, Peter, help me barricade the door." Jansen suddenly panted, grabbing a heavy metal crate and shoved it towards the door. Peter looked at him for a dazed moment then started to help. Jenny and I sat there trembling as we watched the boys laden up the door with heavy boxes, crates, and even a few random cinder blocks. "Is-is that going to do anything? Is that really going to keep _him_ out?" Jenny sputtered, backing far away from the door. I looked at the large barricade and back at her, frowning. "Let's hope to God it does, or we are all going to die." I breathed, even having some doubts myself. Instead of voicing them, I shoved them to the back of my mind and peered at everyone in the dim light the moon gave us. I noticed something dark running down out the corner of Jansen's mouth and walked up to him, confused. I reached up a hand and ran my thumb over the mark, making him flinch at my cold touch. When I pulled my thumb away I ran it between my fingers, trying to feel what this substance was. In the moonlight I saw it glint a deep red, almost black and I then knew immediately what it was. "Jansen, you're bleeding." I told him, looking at the stain again. He frowned then looked at the blood on my hand. "I don't know how, maybe I got hit sometime_" He began but Peter suddenly cut him off, "Gwen, you're bleeding too. It's dripping out your mouth, and eyes." I reached up to my own face and sure enough I felt sticky blood coming out of the corners of my eyes and mouth. "But I never got hit, well not that I know of." I told them, but as I looked around I saw dark stains on Peter's and Jenny's faces too, in the exact same places. "Guys, we all are hurt in the exact same way. And none of us remember getting hit; unless that monster is finding some way to hurt us without touching us physically." Peter stated, looking away from us, pondering; but not before I saw the flash of terror in his blue eyes. "Wait…remember after Freddy was-after that horrible moment we all were affected by that static noise? I think that's how we got these issues. I think that thing has some kind of offense that weakens the people he's chasing, kind of like when a snake bites prey; the prey can still flee, but the venom severely weakens it. Since we all got hurt, I haven't felt right at all." Jenny blurts out, realization glinting in her green eyes. "So, what you're saying is…this freak has some kind of sound that acts like a poison in our bodies?" Jansen asks, staring at her. Jenny nodded her head in response. I was momentarily lost in thought as Jenny's theory began to click and make perfect sense. My body did feel extremely weakened since that static attack, and a distant ringing still went on in my ears. It was kind of scary how badly I wanted to lie down on the ground and never get up again, to fall into an endless sleep.

Then, out a nowhere, a shadow ghosted in front of the grimy windows, cutting out the moonlight for a second. I yelped and stumbled away from the windows, which I had been standing awfully close to. Close enough to that I could see exactly what just passed by. "We need to hide, like right now." I whispered to them and hurried to a door on the far right of the room. It opened with a groan, like it had been a long time since this thing was used, and we all filed in. I glanced around and saw that we had entered some kind of hallway with lockers lining each side, doors in between the rows. We must have gone into some kind of old fashioned bath house/ storage shed. "Don't split up…it's the worst thing you can do right now_" I began but was abruptly cut off by the shattering of the windows in the other room. Jenny whimpered and took off down the hall on her own, darting down the conjoining hallway. "Dammit, Jenny, don't run away from us." Peter blurted out then chased after her, leaving me and Jansen to gape after them. Another shatter broke me out of the gaze. Jansen didn't utter a word as he grabbed my small hand in his large one and pulled me away from the door. We silently crept away from the front room and down into the other hallway that we watched our friends disappear into. This one was very dark, with the windows boarded up and the ever present lights on the celling were, of course, busted and incapable of working. I felt along the wall as we were swallowed up in the darkness and listened to every little noise, hoping I could find everyone. The sound of the front door being slammed open the barricade being brought down immediately made me want to run away and leave everyone else behind; but I could never do that, it wasn't who I was. Me and Jansen quickly ducked into an open room that had just a little moonlight filtering through the boards, enough to see what was in that room. It was a spare room of some sorts that had battered moldy boxes stacked up in random piles. We let go of each other's hands then each hid behind a stack of boxes. As I hid, waiting, I looked around at the walls, something was off about them. That's when I noticed there was writing all over the back wall facing me. It looked as if someone was in a hurry when they had scribbled all over the walls. It read 'No. No. No. No.' and 'Don't look behind you. It gets you' ,with assorted pine trees surrounding the messages. My breath hitched in my throat, because I knew some poor soul had tried writing out these warnings before they were killed themselves.

The temperature began to drop several degrees as time went on, and then became so cold that I could see my breath coming out in clouds. What kind of devil work was going on here? Suddenly a terrified, shrill scream shattered the silence, distinctively feminine. I gasped in horror as ice shot through my veins and breathed out one word, "Jenny."


	3. Chapter 3

I just stood there, trembling, cowering behind the boxes; completely unable to go help my friend. Why couldn't I get the guts to go find her? This wasn't like me at all, she was one of my best friends for crying out loud, and here I stood; hiding behind moldy cardboard waiting for the sounds of her demise. "Gwen…Gwen, listen to me. We have to go find Jenny, we have to help her." Jansen blurted out to me, breaking me out of my chaotic thoughts. I stared at him, unsure of how to respond because my brain didn't want to seem to work properly. Jansen was suddenly in front of me, placing his hands on either side of my face, making me look up into his warm brown eyes. I was becoming lost in them when he gave me a gentle shake. Another scream from Jenny brought me rushing back to reality and I started to quake again. "Look, I know you're terrified, but we have to do this, for our friends. I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He told me, holding me tightly against him. I ignored the fluttering of my heart at those last few words and thought, he was right; we had to go save our friends. I gave him one nod then broke out of his comforting grasp. Silently, he and I crept back down the hallway, searching the rooms for our friends. "Dear God, help me!" Jenny's hoarse cry rang out into the air and we jumped, not expecting it to come from the room right beside us. I looked around for a weapon, anything that could defend us from the monster. My eyes then fell on a red emergency box tacked to the wall a little ways ahead of us and I ran up to it, finding an ax nestled inside. I bent my elbow and slammed it down on the glass with all I had, hearing a resounding crack as the glass broke into lots of tiny fragments. I snatched up the ax then spun around to face the room that had double doors drawn closed. I took in a deep breath, locked eyes with Jansen for a second, then threw the doors open.

The first thing I saw when barging into the room was the creature. It had its back to me and was hunched over because of its height. Black tentacle appendages growing out of its back writhed above its form and the demon growled at something clutched in its hands. I gasped when I saw Jenny was the thing between its hands, which were wrapped around her neck. Jenny was gasping for air and clawing at Slender Man, tears streaming down her bruised face. Suddenly the ax was ripped from my grip and I whipped my head around to see who took it. Peter stood next to me, gripping the ax between rigid hands and absolutely shaking with anger. I also noted he had blood dripping from his back, where puncture wounds dotted his torso. Slender Man must have gotten a hold of him too. "I will save Jenny! I'm not gonna let her get killed by this monstrosity!" Peter snarled then lunged at the monsters back. The ax made a sickening, wet sound as it embedded into the demons flesh. Everything seemed to freeze as Slender Man dropped Jenny and began to slowly turn its body around to face Peter. I had to choke back a scream of horror when I got a good look at it faceless…face. Everyone held their breaths, unsure of what to do…then Slender Man let out a low, dark chuckle. A tentacle reached down and yanked the ax out of its skin and let it clatter to the ground, black blood dripping off the blade. This demon didn't even seemed fazed by the wound, even though Peter embedded it in there pretty deep; he wasn't anywhere near a small guy and had quite a bit of muscle on him. While Peter and Slender Man stared each other down I carefully crept up to Jenny, who was on her hands and knees with her head hung down, breathing in ragged breaths. I placed my hand on her shoulder and she jerked back, eyes wide in fear. I shook my head and put a finger to my lips, grabbed one of her wrist, and pulled her along with me. I'm sure Slender Man knew what I was doing; maybe he was just toying with us, wanting us to have a false sense of security. When I reached Jansen and Peter, that's when everything went wrong. First the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and then my very soul seemed to quake inside me. A feeling of rage suddenly filled the room, so evident my body could react violently to it. "Pathetic, foolish humans; you have no way to escape. Run all you might, for it will make no difference in the end. I will devour your souls." A deep voice boomed and with that, the demon lunged at us, windows shattering all around us. The boys grabbed me and Jenny and shoved us out of the room before the monster could touch us, then we all took off down the hall. I was still holding onto Jenny's wrist, my knuckles white now because of how tightly I was holding on, but only because Jenny herself looked as if she couldn't run on her own. Something was off about her eyes, something seemed…to be missing. An unearthly roar sounding off behind us quickly showed me I couldn't be thinking about this right now. Finally the guys found an exit door and barreled through it, letting Jenny and me out first. Jansen was right on our heels but as soon as Peter took one step outside, something immediately wrapped around his legs and slammed him to the ground. Jenny let out a strangled cry when he began to get pulled backwards, back into the pitch darkness. She dove for him, grasping his hands in her. Unfortunately, she, or any of us, didn't even have time to call out to him or pull him away, because with a scream he was ripped from her grasp. In utter horror I watched as Peter was drug down the hall, his nails ripping up the linoleum as he clawed for freedom, and then was swallowed up into the darkness. "No, no, no, no! Pete!" Jenny howled, jumping up to her feet and running for the door. I quickly jumped in her path and forced her backwards, my eyes stinging with tears. A guttural scream rang into the air then, carrying out for second before it was cut off abruptly.

A shudder ran through Jenny's frame and she crumpled forward, sobs wrenching from her chest. I quickly enveloped her in a hug, trying to hold her together. "He's gone... Oh, he's gone!" She cried out into my chest, her hands clenching my arms for support. I just held her, running a hand down her head, completely devoid of words. Peter and her had a thing going on for months now, I didn't realize how serious it was until now; and after what had just happened I knew there was nothing I could say to comfort her. Jansen stumbled up to us, his face completely ashen and his hands shaking; and though he would not admit it out loud I could see grief hidden in the depths of his eyes. "We-we have to go. We need to get the hell out of here. That thing is going to come back for the rest of us if we don't go…" Jansen said, looking down at us fearfully. I nodded then pulled Jenny upright, looking at her face before we took off. I saw that same thing again that I saw before…it was hiding beneath the grief; it was emptiness, an ominous emptiness. It was like her mind and very soul were deteriorating because of something; or _someone_. Looking into her eyes made me feel like death was breathing down our necks, that there was something demonic going on behind them. And this made me shudder, it made me want to cling to my own soul and run, run from the insanity and demons that hungered for it…and I could tell that one specific demon would stop at nothing until he had devoured it.


	4. Chapter 4

Everything about me hurt; my lungs, my legs, my chest, my eyes, just everything. My muscles shook with exhaustion and my lungs felt like someone had rubbed the insides of them raw with sandpaper. I had sweat sticking my clothes to my body, yet I was cold, so the moisture made me even colder. The beers I had consumed before coming to these woods were more then burned out of my system, but yet what I wouldn't do for some right now. Actually, any kind of alcohol I could get my hands on, and drink until my body went numb and my mind shut down. I looked up at my friends trudging ahead of me; their bodies hunched over in exhaustion, and wondered if they wanted to sink into oblivion as bad as I did. I wish I never came here tonight, I wish I had walked away from my friends and left them to this fate…no, I didn't wish that, I wish I had had the sense to talk them out of this stupid dare. I was going to die tonight if we didn't find some kind of escape. Funny, I always thought I would die from old age, go peacefully in my sleep. I thought I was going to live a long, adventurous life, settle down and have children, publish a few books, and then I would die; wise, old, and ready to go to Heaven. Apparently fate had different plans for me, I mean for crying out loud I was only in my second year of college, 21 years old, and so ready to be a nurse. I let out a defeated sigh and pushed back lank, brunette locks out of my face. No, I couldn't give up; I wouldn't…not yet, not until I knew for certain my fate was sealed. If it was my destiny to die at the hands of this monster then so be it, when the time comes I would stand tall and not go down without a fight. We crested a hill and found over selves facing a rickety looking radio tower, though it was quite small to be one. Jansen looked at it, frowning, and then pulled out his phone. I could see him press buttons to turn it on and his screen flickered to life. Yet, instead of seeing apps I saw white, a completely blank, white screen.

"What the fuck? When did this happen?" Jansen howled, pressing all the buttons he could on his phone. As he worked at his phone, I pulled out my own. My iPhone lit up just as his did; but then I also saw only white. The phone didn't respond whatsoever to any of my commands, it was broken. "That monster must have done this. He must have brought our phones down just as he brought us down. Great, we have no contact to the outside world." Jansen huffed then with a snarl chucked his phone at the wooden structure, the screen shattering with a crunch. As he fumed, I numbly let my phone slip out of my fingers and tumble to the ground, knowing it would serve me no purpose anymore. A movement to my right brought me out of my daze, and I pulled my head up to see Jenny shuffling around, peering into the dark trees. I just watched her, unsure of what to say; this wasn't normal. She seemed to be muttering to herself, like she was talking to someone inside her head, and her hands kept fluttering up to head, almost like she was trying to claw at something. I approached her slowly and rested a hand on her shoulder. She jumped then whipped her head around, blonde hair flying, and glared at me. "What do you want?" She muttered in a pissed tone, still glaring at me. "Jenny, what's wrong with you? You're worrying me, are you hurt?" I asked her, concern crossing over my face. "Sure…I'm just wonderful. I'm totally over the fact my boyfriend just died, and that were stuck in this hellhole of a forest." Jenny barked bitterly, smacking my hand off her shoulder. Her usually vibrant, jade green eyes were dull and stormy, muted down into a color of mud. My concern heightened even more but my face went blank, trying to not freak her out or agitate her. "Please, Gwen, drop the innocent act. We all know you're a fake ass bitch." Jenny hissed at me, an amused grin creeping up her face. My mouth fell open with a small pop and I just stared at her. In all my days of knowing her, not once had she ever insulted me with intention to offend me; she may have had a blunt, no-bullshit personality but she never lashed out at people like this. I could hear Jansen approach us, his ranting ending immediately. "There's something wrong with you…you've lost your ever-loving mind." I shot back, my hands trembling at my sides, itching to hit something. "No, I actually feel better than ever. This is amusing me quite a bit. Sweet, shy Gwen getting pissed off. Please, do continue." She answered, a hysterical laugh bubbling from her lips. Now I could feel Jansen behind me, his chest brushing my back, and I could also feel the disbelief ebbing off of him. "What did that thing do to you? Slender Man did something to your mind, I just know it. You haven't been acting right since he got his hands on you." I yelled at her. Jenny just cocked her head to the side and peered into my eyes with a crazed look. "Whatever do you mean? I don't think he did anything to me." She said in a sickly sweet voice, shrugging. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you two, but I have an idea. This tower is tall enough to see over the tree tops, so if I climb to the top I may be able to see what's out there. Maybe I can see a road or some way out of here. OK?" Jansen suddenly piped up. I glanced back at him and nodded, to shocked to speak to him. He took a moment to stare at the both of us before taking off to the wooden tower. I diverted my gaze back to Jenny after I made sure he started climbing, and just glared at her. "You need help. If we ever find a way out of this place, we are taking you straight to the hospital. Your mind has been messed with and now you're losing it." I shot at her, while shaking my head. Jenny just stood there, head still turned to the side, and giggled, "Have you ever thought maybe I don't want to be helped? Maybe I like it this way."

I balked and floundered for a logical answer to this. She took a step towards me at that moment and for some reason, I took one away from her. A sly grin appeared on her lips as she began to advance on me. I gasped and backed away from her at the same time, unsure of why I was acting this way. Maybe it had to be the empty, insane look in her eyes. My instincts were controlling me at the moment, telling me to not let her anywhere near me, that Jenny was a hostile threat. "What are you afraid of, Gwen?" She asked innocently, still advancing. "I don't know, just stay away from me. I don't know what to trust anymore." I rasped, my voice hoarse all of a sudden. I quickly let my eyes flicker up to the tower to see Jansen at the top, scanning the tree line, then snapped them back to my insane friend. "I wonder what would happen if he fell, or worse, what if Slender Man got him? What would you do Gwen? You'd be all alone with me and Slender." Jenny cackled, her hand fluttering back up to her head, like she was trying to claw at something again. Dear gosh, what the hell did the being do to my friend? Then I saw it; for a brief second I saw agony and fear flit through her eyes. She was in pain, she was suffering, so now what was I going to do to help her? We were nowhere near civilization where she could receive medical help. God knows what this thing did to all of us; the doctors would probably hospitalize us all if they found out. Or if they even believed us. No, they wouldn't; we'd all get put in an insane asylum, wrapped up tight in a strait jacket in a padded white cell. I dared to consider the thought if we even made it out of this place alive.

While my mind reeled and I grasped for a sound thought, I didn't see Jenny bend down and pick up a blunt looking rock and approach me. I only noticed what she was doing when suddenly pain exploded in the side of my head. I cried out in pain and stumbled sideways, gripping the right side of my head where something warm and wet was oozing between my fingers. I pulled my hand away and through bleary vision saw ruby red liquid running down my hand and dripping to the dead, brittle grass.

"Oh my…what did you just do, Jenny?" I screeched, fighting back waves of nausea and pain. She giggled and let the bloody rock drop to the ground, shrugging. "What can I say? You're very easy to sneak up on, I'm surprised you've even lasted this long. Oh well, your blood will give you away now though. Slender Man will have an extremely easy time hunting you." Jenny said simply. She was gone, utterly gone. She snapped, or someone made her snap. Suddenly, I lost it. Just like that, I completely lost control of my patience and will to hold back. With an angry howl, I launched myself at her, throwing all my weight into her and knocking us both down the side of the hill. Once we finished tumbling down the side I reared back above her, gripped my hand into a fist, and hit her as hard as I could in the face. I heard a nice resounding crunch and a muffled shriek from her. When I yanked my hand away I saw blood pouring in torrents from her nose and upper teeth. When she turned her icy gaze on me was when I jumped off her fallen form and stood several feet away. She growled, gargling slightly, and clumsily got to her feet. I had hoped that punch would have knocked some sense into her, but instead it made her angrier and more crazed. An animalistic look appeared in her eyes as she ran at me, fist raised. I ducked the first one but received the other blow to my abdomen. I gasped as the wind got knocked out of me and threw another fist at her face again, this time clipping the underside of her jaw. I doubled over, trying to regain my breath as I watched her come to hit me again, when out of nowhere a hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, halting her immediately.

She snarled and threw her head around to look behind her at who stopped her, and struggled to get away when she realized it was Jansen. "What the fuck are you two doing? We're running for our lives and you two idiots are fighting? What is wrong with ya'll." He asked angrily, shoving Jenny to the side. "Nothing wrong, I'm just doing what my…master…expects of me." She blurted out, but seemed confused all of a sudden why she was saying that. Jansen spun around to her, jaw falling open slightly. "Master? Who's your…Jenny what the hell are you saying?" He sputtered, finally seeing what I had been seeing for hours now. "…Slender Man…he wants me…he wants me to attack you…to stop you so he can…come finish the hunt." Jenny mumbled, clawing at her head once more. Jansen began to back away from her, shaking his head slightly. "You've lost it. There's no hope for you. Gwen, we've got to go, she's gone, that bastard has done something to her. We need to run." He said to me in a rush, gripping my hand tightly in his. My heart tore as well as my mind. How the hell did I choose? Either I left my friend to her fate, or we all perished where we were. "You've got a lighter…I saw you use it earlier this afternoon. Give me the lighter, you fuck." Jenny yelled out of nowhere and tackled into Jansen. As they were falling she fished inside his jean pocket then decked him in the face when she pulled her hand out, something clasped in it. It happened so quickly I didn't have time to pry her off. But before I could make a move she leaped of him and scrambled backwards. "She took my lighter. What are you going to do, Jenny?" Jansen shouted, getting back to his feet but never taking his eyes off her quaking form. "What does it look like? I'm stopping you, and the only way that will keep you here is setting the trees on fire." My insane friend laughed evilly, making the flame in the lighter flicker to life. As I gaped at the horror of what she just said, my eyes began to scan the surroundings; taking in the dead, dry bracken and parched pine trees. Pine trees, one of the quickest trees to go up in flames, especially when dry. Just like when my family burned all our dead Christmas trees to get rid of them quicker… "Jenny, please don't do this. You'll create an inferno within mere minutes. We will all die where we stand. Is that what you want?" I yelped out loud, desperately trying to get her to see some light. She swallowed and continued to hold the flame above her head, uncertainty ghosting over her face. This is when Jansen took his chance to stop her. Knowing she wouldn't have time to react he ran full force at her, slamming into her but holding a hand out stretched to grab the lighter from her.

When they hit the ground it seemed like he had it in his hand, but in fear Jenny must have thought it a good idea to flick the lighter away from them. It seemed like everything went in slow motion as I watched that flame fall to the pine needle strewn ground. You would think since it was a lighter the flame would have gone out once she released her thumb, but instead because they were so close to the ground the flame had just enough time to ignite something before it vanished.

Everything that little flame touched immediately began to burn, spreading farther as the seconds went on. Jenny and Jansen continued to wrestle; apparently Jenny was angry now and was trying to attack Jansen. I balked, how could they be fighting right now as the forest was staring to catch on fire? It had only been two minutes and I could already feel the blaze from the fire, which was now licking up the trunks of the massive pines, charring everything within its path. "Get up you morons. Get up and run or we're going to burn." I screeched at them, my heart leaping up my throat as I heard the roar of the flames spreading towards us. They didn't seem to comprehend what I was saying, they just continued to fight.

At that moment a shadow loomed over me, and my breath hitched in my throat when I spun around to see what it was. I came within mere inches of a white faceless face that stared down at mine. His body was hunched over me, in a crouched like position, to where it seemed like he could reach out and pull in my small frame at any second. My heart stopped and a cold sweat immediately broke out all over my body. I couldn't move, I was frozen to the spot I was in, forced to breath in his somehow alluring smell of blood and snow. "You fools, did you really think burning my forest down would stop me from killing you?" Slender Man said to me, his deep, dark, velvety voice eliciting shivers down my spine. "I…didn't…we didn't start it…Jenny threw the lighter…she-she said you were making her do those things." I choked out, my mind becoming sluggish in his presence. A grin full of malice spread up his face as he seemed to wrap his body more around me. "Indeed I was inside her head, whispering commands to her. She had no choice but to listen, because she is now mine, forever. And my dear, you will be too." He seemingly purred. I gasped softly and forced myself to take steps backwards. As soon as I was away from him the chill that surrounded him vanished and I was soon enveloped in oppressive orange heat.

All the trees around us were now ablaze and beginning to fall apart, making the ground burn even more. It was a miracle we weren't all burned already but then again maybe that was because of Slender Man's doing. "Jansen! Run, we have to run now!" I yelled, seeing Jansen finally off the ground, bloody and bruised. He turned to the sound of my voice over the roar and began to come towards me, when suddenly there was a splintering crack. "Gwen, move!" Jansen screeched at me and I flung my head upwards to see a massive, flaming branch falling towards me. I dove out of the way, but unfortunately I wasn't fast enough because a chunk of the limb ran down the side of my leg in that last second, ripping skin apart and charring skin. I screamed when I was assaulted with tremendous pain and fell in a heap, feet away from the smoldering limb. Over the ringing in my ears I could hear Jansen's muffled voice calling for me. I pushed myself onto my hands and knees and turned my head back in his direction. The branch had blocked his path to me and there was no other way to me in the inferno. Dread filled my heart when I realized the situation we were now in. It was either me, or him. I couldn't bear to see him to die so I yelled at him to leave me until my voice went hoarse from the smoke. He would never be able to run with my dead weight, I was beyond help. With a terrified look, he spun and ducked into the smoldering woods. "Please God…keep him safe." I whispered to myself and then tried to pull myself to my feet. My leg gave out on me though and I crashed back down to the hot ground. So, I was to die here, die by being burned alive. Honestly, I'd rather take that than being eaten alive. But where was Jenny? I didn't see her flee, or go up in flames. That's when my question was answered because Jenny was suddenly standing before me, her legs the only thing I could see at that moment. I craned my head upwards and gaped when I saw her face. It was ashen, bloody, and absolutely frightened. It looked as if she had come face to face with death itself. "Gwen!" Jenny sobbed, reaching a shaky hand towards me. It was a plea for help; but not for me. I threw my hands towards hers, desperate to help my last tormented friend. Slender Man had different ideas though, because he appeared behind her from out of the haze, wrapped his hands and tentacles around her form, pulled her into him, and began to retreat. Terrified screams wrenched from her chest as they disappeared and then stopped abruptly when their figures were completely gone. I tried to call out to her but my voice broke, the smoke had completely killed my throat. I coughed and gasped for air as I drug myself away from the flames, blood trailing after my mangled calf and still oozing from my head. The more I tried, the more exhausted I became until my body gave out on me. I collapsed on the blackened ground and laid there, staring into fire; the colors dancing in the flames lulling me into a numbed state. I didn't care anymore, let me die now. All my friends were gone, and I would never see my family again. The world began to fade out as the fire surrounded me, encircling my pyre. Thank you God, for letting my death be painless and swift. Those were the last thoughts in my head as my eyesight trained on a shadowy figure leaning towards me, then my consciousness submerged into the awaiting darkness.


End file.
